GM will compensate for ignition switch deaths starting at $1 million

GM’s ongoing wave of recalls is part of a Barra-led effort to reemphasize safety at the company. She has also appointed a new safety chief and encouraged rank-and-file employees to speak up about safety issues.

“We undertook what I believe is the most comprehensive safety review in the history of our company because nothing is more important than the safety of our customers,” Barra said in a statement about the latest recall. “Our customers deserve more than we delivered in these vehicles. That has hardened my resolve to set a new industry standard for vehicle safety, quality and excellence.”

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Monday’s recall includes cars from 1997 to 2014 model years. GM is aware of seven crashes, eight injuries and three deaths linked to the recall. But the automaker says there is “no conclusive evidence that the defect condition caused those crashes.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), GM’s loudest critic in Congress, also met with Feinberg while the attorney was developing the plan. In a statement, Blumenthal praised the set-up of the compensation fund, but he reiterated his call for GM to stop using its bankruptcy as a legal shield in existing lawsuits.

“The devil here is in the discretion — not just the details,” Blumenthal said. “Flexibility in the deadlines, as well as the burdens of proof, will be key to fairness. This compensation fund is an important step toward justice. It heeds the call that I and others have made for GM to recognize its responsibility for the death, injury, and damage caused by its huge and historic failings. The fund offers GM a break from its tragically troubled past, and a bridge to a genuinely new GM — but only if the company fully and fairly embraces its compensation obligations.”

In a later conference call with reporters, Blumenthal said he would “vigorously press” Barra at a future hearing to make the fund more “flexible, open and inclusive.”

“GM needs to be held accountable … for all the cars with these defects that crashed,” said Blumenthal, a former state attorney general. “The victims should not be put through the wringer and forced to overcome an obstacle course. The benefit of the doubt has to be given to the victim.”

Blumenthal suggested a second compensation fund might be needed for victims whose vehicles fell outside the scope of the first fund. For example, that fund doesn’t apply to ignition problems for recently recalled Chevy Camaros or Impalas.

In a statement, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) confirmed Barra would testify at a second Senate hearing sometime in July. The House Commerce subcommittee investigating the company has already held two hearings on the topic.

“I’ll be closely reviewing Mr. Feinberg’s plan, but this is a necessary step on the road toward full accountability at General Motors,” she said. “I’m hopeful that the new compensation program will help bring some closure and relief to victims and families affected by the failures of GM that took many lives, and forever changed many more.”

Several family members of victims attended Feinberg’s press conference, with one questioning Feinberg on whether he would look at evidence she had gathered about additional crashes. Feinberg briefly spoke with the family members after the press conference and promised to meet with them.

Laura Christian, the birth mother of Amber Marie Rose, a Maryland teenager who died in 2005 after the airbag in her Chevy Cobalt failed to deploy, told reporters she was considering GM’s offer.

“I’m glad they’re not requiring silence because that would just be a non-starter for us,” Christian said, noting money wasn’t the main issue. “It was hard to hear, you know, Amber reduced to a dollar amount.”

Christian also spotted a potential flaw in Feinberg’s plan. While presenting the plan, Feinberg made a sweeping declaration.

“If the airbag deployed in the accident, you’re ineligible,” he said. “It couldn’t have been the ignition switch.”

But Christian said she had gathered data indicating in some cases, drivers were able to get the car running just before a crash, resulting in the airbag deploying. Feinberg said he would review those cases.

Feinberg will begin accepting claims on Aug. 1 and victims will have until year’s end to file a claim.